Both Simranjit Singh Mann, 71, and Jagmeet Brar, 58, failed to have any impact on the Punjab polls. Votes polled by 54 candidates fielded by Mann’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) failed to cross even the total number of times NOTA (none of the above) option was used by the electorate.

Both Simranjit Singh Mann, 71, and Jagmeet Brar, 58, failed to have any impact on the Punjab polls.

Votes polled by 54 candidates fielded by Mann’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) failed to cross even the total number of times NOTA (none of the above) option was used by the electorate. In comparison to 49,260 votes in favour of the party, NOTA was pressed by 1.08 lakh voters.

The SAD(A) has not seen any electoral win since 1999, when Mann was elected as MP from Sangrur. Even as Mann was unavailable for comment, a close aide accepted the party’s support base was dwindling.

Former Congress MP Jagmeet Brar, who is leading Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in Punjab, fielded candidates from 20 of the 117 assembly segments in the state. Their performance has been so poor that the election commission has provided no separate figures for the party’s vote share. Brar, a former two-time Lok Sabha member from Faridkot, was expelled from the Congress last year, subsequent to which he had unsuccessfully tried to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He was not available for comment.